The grid is possibly the most important asset and area of greatest investment for any utility company. As the main “artery” for carrying the energy commodity from principal generation sources, it connects a range of facilities such as substations, switchyards, and power plants to one another, and delivers power to public, private, and municipal end user load centers.
The future of the utility industry will be defined by how its leaders can transform the grid from a “passive” network of cables, wires, poles, and other hardware to a self-aware and fully controllable grid system—an Intelligent Grid System (IGS).
Challenges: A complicating factor is the imperative to design and build an Intelligent Grid System that will hold viable not just for today, but for several decades to come. As utility industry leaders make decisions about investing capital and resources in new technologies, it is essential to consider how today's standards and technologies will integrate with tomorrow's different and/or better ones. Will standard or design “A” go in the direction of design “B” or design “C”?
If today's design and system architecture choices are not aligned with emerging technologies, the bottom line as well as human resource management and future industry progress will be profoundly and negatively impacted. Likewise, sound judgments about building a system foundation that is flexible enough to maintain a constant alignment with the change in technology will be rewarded.
Utility leaders are faced with the complex challenge of selecting the right products, partners, and solutions for the task. They have rightfully concluded that investing large sums of capital or dealing with a well-known company will not necessarily guarantee the desired business results at the end of the project.
Others have done some work in this area:
Kahle (Compulog Corporation, U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,576) teaches an electrical connector network for coordinately controlling multiple electrical appliances connected to the network. The network includes a control outlet and at least one slave outlet.
Willette (The Whitaker Corporation, U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,190) teaches a communication wiring system which includes a communication network interface device for routing a plurality of source signals between respective plurality of types of electrical sources and a number of reconfigurable outlet assemblies.
Stewart et al. (Echelon Corp., U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,557) teaches a power line communication analyzer (PLCA) which provides a signal strength metering system and selectable signal attenuation functions for adjusting the transmitting unit's attenuation and measuring error rate without the need for the user to be present at both sending and receiving locations under test.
Abraham (Videocom, Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,386) teaches a communication network which includes an information signal line which carries a plurality of selectable information signals. An electric line distribution panel connects the information signal line and the electrical line for distributing the selectable information signals over the electrical line to the location of a given electrical outlet.
Lutz, Jr., et al. (Cisco Technology, Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,672) teaches a wall mount filter which includes a wall mount plate to which a connection port is coupled.
Curt et al. (Shenandoah Electronics Intelligence, Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,177) teaches a portable unit, preferably adapted for plugging into a common wall outlet, which has circuitry for monitoring the voltage and/or current provided through an electrical outlet.
Jones et al. (Teal Corporation Limited, U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,928) teaches a method of controlling the power supply to an electrical device through a telecommunication network.
Comer (Comcircuits, U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,762) teaches a system for transmitting and receiving high frequency electrical communication signals over a previously installed building power line network.
Clapp, Jr., et al. (Corning Cable System LLC, U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,874) teaches a mixed media outlet which can be mounted on the wall and includes ports for separate access to an electrical network and optical network.
Mowery, Jr. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,897) teaches a system for communicating information to and from untethered subscriber devices and tethered devices by the use of a power transmission line communication system interfacing to a conventional electric power distribution network.
Walbeck et al. (Easyplug Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,859) teaches a modular feed-through adapter that allows an electrical connection to a power line network adapter without using up an electrical outlet.
However, none of these inventions can attack the problem on a large scale, comprehensively, efficiently, and completely. The current invention offers a flexible architectural design for applying technology to transform today's grid into an Intelligent Grid for the 21st century. The document charts the direction and creates a roadmap to which utilities can fulfill their vision, while avoiding the risks and unnecessary expenses that may occur when implementing technological solutions. This invention is a blueprint for transforming today's passive grid into a self-aware and fully-controllable grid system.